


Leader

by autumnsnows



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25638385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsnows/pseuds/autumnsnows
Summary: Lyse struggles to come to terms with her newly given title. Her girlfriend tries to help. There's crying involved.Just a short little fic I wrote when I was having strong feelings about these two girls and their position in the fandom. I really like Lyse okay she deserves more than the world gave her
Relationships: Lyse Hext/Y'shtola Rhul
Kudos: 28





	Leader

“Come on, Shtola! We won’t get anywhere with you moving along like that.”   
  
Lyse bounced on the balls of her feet as she ran a small circle around Y'shtola, whose own feet dragged heavily across the floor of the room they had stayed in. A night of strategy had turned into a night of sidelong glances and mutual pining, which then turned into a night tangled with Lyse in her arms, the salvation of the realm put off for one more day as they reserved salvation for each other. But dark does give way to the day, and it is in this moment Y'shtola realizes how little she’s slept.   
  
“Gods...Lyse...how do you have that kind of energy this morning?”

  
Lyse continued to bounce on the balls of her feet, the grin on her face a mile wide as she scrunched up her face did her best impression of her former Lalafellin partner.   
  
“You must embrace the day as quickly as possible, so that you may face all its problems with a clear head and a light heart.” Lyse dramatically straightened her posture and looked beyond Y’shtola, toward a horizon that right then consisted mostly of the wooden walls of the bedroom they just left. 

Y'shtola chuckled. “And here you thought you weren’t ready for the responsibility of being the Resistance leader.” 

Lyse’s face darkened slightly as the bouncing on her feet slowed. “I’m not ready,” Lyse said, sighing as she looked out the window. “I never have been. The minute I crossed Ala Mhigo’s borders when I was younger, I lost all qualifications to shape Ala Mhigo’s future.” 

She lightly punched her left hand into her gloved right palm as she scrunched her face in concentration, trying poorly to suppress an oncoming tear. “I don’t know how these people really lived. Just because Ala Mhigo courses through my veins doesn’t make me truly understand their plight. I had a good life. A sheltered one. Surrounded by people who would ensure I’d see no harm. How can I be a leader if I don’t share in their suffering?”   
  
Y'shtola reached her hand out and gently pressed her hand against Lyse’s cheek, her thumb tracing idly along the roundest and fullest curve as she looked up into Lyse’s eyes. “That you recognize your shortcomings in leadership is a leadership quality all its own.”

Her tracing turned into cupping as she brought her forehead against Lyse’s. “You don’t have to do this alone. You’ve never had to. Please. Don’t do it all on your own.” 

Lyse presses her own forehead gently into Y'shtola’s, bringing them closer together. 

“Shtola...that’s all I’ve really known. After Yda died, there was a void that I knew only I could fill. Nobody really cared about me. Yda was always the better one. So why not just slip into her skin, so to speak?”   
  
The tears started falling unbidden from Lyse's eyes. She made no effort to stop them. 

“Keep the mask on, hide the hair, and nobody would expect any different. I had to live two lives, neither of which were wholly mine.”  
  
She pulled her hands along the side of Y’shtola’s head, miming the action of pulling down a hood.   
  
“You all allowed it, of course. Better to keep up the lie of the good sister than deal with the truth of the bad one. But then Papalymo..” Lyse paused for a moment, gasping softly, as if just the act of saying the name winded her.   
  
“Papalymo...died, and there was no use pretending anymore. I gave Yda her final rest as well. Two had died, and in exchange they got - for better or worse - me.”   
  
Lyse’s chest shuddered with the enormity of her emotion.   
  
“Then we get to Ala Mhigo, and... _all that_ happened. And when it was all said and done, our Warrior undoing in mere weeks what had taken the Garleans years, they had me stand at the front of a revolution. I understand why Raubahn could not - though Ala Mhigo was his home, he was much the same as me in that his duties took him away from her borders. But Conrad? M’naago? Ala Mhigo’s people, their hearts dark and heavy from years of oppression, taking up arms in a fight they knew had little chance of success? This was _their_ revolution. I barely had a grip on my own identity, and they wanted me to be the identity of an entire nation. 

How else could I do this but on my own? Who else could possibly help?”

Y'shtola sighed as she continued caressing Lyse’s face. “Everyone can help. Everyone. The Scions don’t do it alone. Save maybe Thancred, but that’s a burden he chooses to bear, not one he has to.”

Y’shtola’s hands were now soaked with Lyse’s tears, but she barely paid it notice. “I’m sorry that I persisted in keeping the lie as long as I did. It wasn’t fair to Yda, or to those that put faith in us. But most importantly, it wasn’t fair to you. You weren’t her. You never had been. But I thought it was the only logical choice. For us to keep our influence, we had to employ some subterfuge. Yda’s name was respected. Your name was not.” 

Y’shtola turned her body away from Lyse, shame drooping her shoulders, but she kept Lyse close.  
  
“Too much time around books and boys who play politics, and not enough time around the person most important to me. I can never take back my part in that. I would apologize a thousand times a day if you had not already forgiven me. But that’s all the more reason to believe in you now. If you were able to live a lie so effectively, you would live your truth with double the intensity. That’s why they believe in you. Why we believe in you. Why _I_ believe in you. “   
  
“Shtola..” Lyse reached out and grabbed Y'shtola’s shoulders, her hands shaking.   
  
Y'shtola pulled Lyse toward her, resting her head on Lyse’s chest as she wrapped her arms around her waist. “You can do this. Everyone is behind you, because everyone can see the flame that burns in your chest. The heart that beats and the fire that burns for Ala Mhigo. You don’t want any of this for yourself. You want this for every single person whose chains have been unbound, whose lives have been made lighter by their freedom.”

Y'shtola smiled into Lyse’s chest as she talked, trying to press as much of her warmth into her love as possible.   
  
“The Scions were too small for the size of your heart. We are worse for your absence, but better for your presence here. Keeping the world safe while our travels take us hither and yon. And most important of all,” Y'shtola said, leaning up to give Lyse a kiss on the cheek, “You are my anchor. You are who I get to come home to when this is all over. No matter what worlds I may travel, you will always be the waypoint to center me. Something to come back to. Something to look forward to.” 

Lyse laughed through her tears, her hands gripping onto Y'shtola’s shoulders harder as she crushed the miqo'te into her. “Certainly Matoya didn’t teach you to be this mushy and sentimental. You’ve got layers of snark so thick even the fist of Rhalgr himself couldn’t hope to penetrate them.”

“Sometimes it’s not a strong fist but a gentle touch that can pierce through the strongest of barriers,” Y'shtola said softly. “And lucky for you, you have both.” 

Lyse’s face burned red. “Y'shtola! Please!” she said, bouncing on her feet anxiously. “Y-you know I can’t match that sort of line.”   
  
“I don’t expect you to,” Y'shtola said. “I don’t expect you to be anything but yourself. Because what you are is perfect.” 

Y'shtola set her hand on Lyse’s shoulder, gently pushing her anxious feet down while the other hand tilted her chin downward. And with no other words, she pressed her lips against Lyse’s, her tail betraying her demeanor as she closed her eyes and purred. Lyse’s eyes widened, the earnestness of the kiss taking her by complete surprise, but soon her eyes too fluttered as she gently placed her hand on the back of Y'shtola’s head. Her thumb and index finger gently scratched the back of Y'shtola’s ears as the two melted into each other, the room around them shrinking away. 

\---

  
After what felt like both an eternity and no time at all, the two broke their kiss, Y'shtola stepping backwards and smiling as she looked out the door.   
“They’ll be expecting me. The Alliance is said to have something important to say to us. I can’t keep them waiting.” 

Lyse nodded, a sadness in her eyes that she knew she couldn’t hide but made her best attempt to anyway.

“Will I see you tonight?” Lyse asked.

  
Y'shtola smiled.

  
“I’ll make sure of it,” she said. 


End file.
